


you look lovely as can be, are you lonely just like me?

by Northisnotup



Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: Crack Treated Seriously, F/M, Meet-Cute, Romcom setting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:40:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28204740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Northisnotup/pseuds/Northisnotup
Summary: When you’re working hard to make ends meet, you don’t expect things to fall into place for you... or for a chance at love to fall right into your arms.
Relationships: Mick Mercury/Nova Zolotovna
Comments: 5
Kudos: 22





	you look lovely as can be, are you lonely just like me?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [IvyOnTheHolodeck](https://archiveofourown.org/users/IvyOnTheHolodeck/gifts).



> Happy belated birthday Ivy! <3 
> 
> This is important to the imagining of the fic itself, all headcanons of Mick are valid - but when thinking of Nova, I need you PLEASE to imagine either Dolly Parton, or the Queen from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. 
> 
> This is non-negotiable and very important to me, specifically.

Mick doesn’t love this new job. 

Well, he hadn’t loved like, four of his last ‘new’ jobs. 

But, hey! They paid what few bills he and his dad had nowadays, while still giving him time to write. And writing...writing really lit that something inside him that had been dark and cold for a long time, since Juno and Sasha moved on. No, since before that. Since so long ago, Mick had forgotten what it felt like to not have that feeling. 

Sure, his novels didn’t sell much outside New Old Town...or in New Old Town, or at all...and sure, Juno yelled every time he sent one out for him to look at. And sure, he was spending more than he made just to have them bound and sent out but...but it really did make him happy. Made him feel good. Made him feel like he was working toward something for the way it made him feel, rather than to make money as quickly as he could. And the yelling was fine, anyway. That’s how ol’Jay-jay says he likes things. 

Really the louder Jay is about something, the more he cares about it. So, he likes the stories a lot! It’s nice to have fans. 

But anyway, the job. It’s not bad. It lets him think, which is not something Mick would have said he liked, a few years ago. When the goal was to try and think as little as possible. (For lots of reasons, but mostly because Mick remembered someone, somewhere telling him that being rich meant you didn’t have to worry anymore, and that sounded like a really good goal, at the time. And if you wanted to be successful and achieve the goals you set, you had to imagine yourself in a world where you had already achieved that goal and live like it! That was the Secret. Or something like that. Mick didn’t really understand it when it was said to him, but he remembered the lady was confident and smiled real nice and sold him a lot of vitamins...or uh serums or something. It had cost a lot but good advice was always worth it!) 

Mostly he stands at the space port and holds a sign directing people toward tours of Hyperion’s Greatest Attractions. 

New in town and want to dive past the Uptown mansions? See the shine of the arts district? Stop in Time New Roman Square and take in the majesty of the highscrapers? Well it will be Bartholomew ‘Mickolas’ Mercury pointing the way! 

Yup, he’s shaken hands with some pretty elite movers and shakers. 

They said so anyway. 

And every once in a while, he gets a tip! Just for holding some luggage or giving a tip about who else has taken the tour or saying what someone else said the weather was like on Venus! 

Safe to say, everything’s coming up Mercury. 

Yup, he’s a real honest citizen now!

Why, when one lady drops her wallet while she’s going through her bag on the short walk from the space port to her stretch limo, Mick doesn’t even think about waiting until she’s out of sight, taking the creds and turning it into the HCPD anonymously!

Okay, he doesn’t think hard about doing that. 

He barely even hesitates. 

Absolutely doesn’t argue with himself that the lady can afford a limo! With four wheels! Surely she can donate some creds to a starving artist? 

It’s a nice wallet too. Textured under his fingers in a way that real, non-sim material could never get and a deep colour that reminded Mick of the gems he saw in catalogues and store windows. And bulging, straining the close around everything stuffed in it. Cards and papers peek out from the edges but Mick doesn’t look too closely, it feels wrong to invade her privacy like that. 

“Excuse me, miss? Uh, madam?” He stutters over the most respectful way to get her attention, “you dropped this!”

She pulls her comms away from her ear, “Pardon,” she starts, and wobbles, the train of her fancy dress tangling around her heels as she turns. She tries to take another step and lurches when her legs are too stuck to take her weight. She teeters, and hops, grunting as she tries to untangle herself and-

“Whoa!” Mick yelps, surging forward.

He doesn’t help her exactly like he means to. 

It always looks so dashing and effortless in the streams, the hero politely setting their stumbling love interest to rights; but the lady is still struggling, flailing her arms, and between her muscles and the weight of her dress, all thick fabric and heavy jeweled beading, Mick is thrown off his own balance. He sags under her weight, catching her against his chest and swinging them both around in some kind of a twisting lunge. 

When it’s all said and done, instead of a polite hand at her elbow, he’s got both arms wrapped securely around her shoulder and waist, holding her tight against his chest, faces...close. Uh, real close. 

Her eyes are wide and blue, blue as the dome. Make up so perfect she probably uses one of those applicator boxes rather than doing it by hand. Which would make sense, for a fancy lady like her. 

“Oh, my,” she breathes, and Mick notices her pale skin turning pinker, and pinker. 

Oh, gosh. 

“By all the stars in the galaxy, I’ve never been handled so, so,” 

Oh, wow. Even her voice is beautiful. Low and accented, like an instrument from a far-away planet...

Right. Way to be a gentleman, Mercury! Jay always says, always tells him he has a real way with the ladies. Only, he scowls when he says it, and he only says it when Mick’s been a real goof ball. Which is probably why Mick can hear it in his ears so clearly right now, even though Jay’s about a million miles away right now. 

He pulls them both back to their feet, unwinding his arms while keeping a lighter, more polite touch on her shoulders while she gets her bearings. 

“Aw, geez! I’m so, sorry ma’am, uh, madam, uh,”

“Nova!” She says, making no move to sort her skirts or lean away from him. Instead, both her hands, covered in sleek looking gloves that match her gown, start running over and playing with the thick blonde curls that halo around her shoulders. “Nova Zolotovna!”

“Madam Nova Zolotovna,” Mick pauses for a second, something tickling at the back of his mind. Nova. Nova…that’s a - “great name!” 

He can already see it, his next book, the Old Town Trio solving the mystery of the beautiful woman of fame and renown who gets a letter from a thief intending to steal her rare and wonderful items!

Sure, he usually writes about things that actually happened, but lately...lately those stories have been getting a little sad. The Trio is getting older. Tasha is making plans for herself, Bruno always fighting with his twin, Jenten. Maybe it’s time to have them pulled back together by a mystery that reignites their love of puzzle solving and reminds them why they’re a family. Yeah. 

Yeah! And now that he thinks about it, it doesn’t make sense for the Oldtown Trio of his books to follow the same path of the real Oldtown Trio. Cause, yeah he based them on him and his friends, originally, and yeah, whenever he gets stuck he thinks to himself, ‘well what did Sasha do?’ ‘What did Juno say?’ ‘How did they get us out of that?’ 

But, they’re not Sasha and Juno. Not really. Not outside of the action scenes. They’re Tasha and Bruno. 

And you know what? Bruno’s gonna make up with his brother. 

And maybe flirt with the thief. Who’s gonna be this awesome, really misunderstood loner who feels like he _has_ to steal. 

And Tasha! She’s gonna make them promise to always be a team. She’s gonna realize that she didn’t lose her family, her family is right here, and if she needs them all she’s gotta do it ask and they’ll have her back. 

And the heiress! Well, the heiress - 

“You like it?” She grins, “I picked it myself!” 

“It’s stellar!” Mick assures her, grinning back helplessly, before remembering that he’s supposed to be working. He’s a professional now. He clears his throat, “again, I’m so, so sorry for startling you, it’s just you dropped your wallet, and I-”

“Oh! My word to the heavens, thank you! That wallet is my life!” she cries, reaching for the wallet and tipping, crashing into Mick’s chest as she does, feet still tangled in her yards and yards of train. 

And just like that she’s in his arms again, staring up at him with those big eyes. 

“I do apologize! I, why I swear I’ve never been so clumsy in all my life. I just seem to be weak in the knee’s all of a sudden!” She says, all in one big breath. 

“That’s okay!”

“And this dress, it’s so new. One of a kind, but not really my style but I apparently fund the designer so I’ve got to be seen wearing it, you understand.” Nova wiggles, resting more of her weight on his chest and trying to kick her legs free.

“Oh well, yeah, of course,” he says quickly, nodding like it all makes perfect sense. He steadies them as they sway with Nova’s struggle.

“You know I’ve been to so many places but I’ve never been to Mars before, and I imagine the atmosphere of this dome must be wreaking havoc on my poor nerves, something this old, how does it stay standing?” 

“No idea!” Mick says, dazedly.

“Have you been here long?”

“All my life.”

“Really?” 

“Uh-huh.”

Something shifts behind her eyes then, the soft look going sharp. “And would you say you know Hyperion well?”

“Like the back of my hand, I don’t mean to brag or nothin’,” he boasts, taking both of her hands and placing them lightly on his shoulders, “uh, hold on Madam,”

“Nova, please,” Nova corrects breathlessly. 

“Nova,” he tries not to sigh her name, and thinks he does okay. “But around here, they used to call me the King of the Freeway, on account of how I know the streets so well. Got me?”

“Yes?”

Slowly, he lets her go and kneels down, making sure she’s steady before he starts to unwrap the heavy and gauzy fabrics from around her legs. Some of it’s got caught on the clasps and detailing on her shoes too, which adds to the mess. But it’s nothing, really. And he tells her as much. 

“When we were kids, my two best friends and I, we were kinda a team you know? And as long as anyone could remember, the corner store owned by Mrs. and Mrs. Parton, they had this huge, and I mean, huge, ball of string that was in the store front window. Anyone could try and untangle it, right? They had a sign, if you could untangle the string, you’d get one free soda a day for life! Me and my best friends, Sasha and Juno, we went there every day after school, or after detention, or after Sasha’s dad’s let her leave the food stall they owned for two weeks and we’d work together poking and prodding at it until bit by bit it all unravelled!” 

“And you won free soda for life!”

“Well, no. We had to pick who was gonna get the soda each day, and it was just for that summer cause I guess something happened, and the Parton’s store closed down for good and a big city store opened up in its place, but no one ever shopped there.” 

“Out of respect for the hard work of those poor ladies!”

“Uh, no, mostly ‘cause the prices were too high,” Mick grins up at her. “But anyway, next to unravelling that, this is easy-peasy.” It takes a bit of work, to unhook the bits of jewels or beading or whathaveyou from each other, and from her stockings, patterned with little gems, and her shoes with their details but he manages it. “There!”

Without help!  
“We!”

Take that Juno and Sasha! Now who’s being a useless hang on? “Go!”

Well, okay at the time it was him, but he still thinks his moral support was just as crucial to their overall success as Jay-Jay’s sharp mind and Sasha’s stubborn need to finish what she starts, no matter the cost. 

Strong hands in pretty, satin gloves grip his arms and pull him upright. “My life has twisted me this way and that, drawing me down the path of fate and always, always it has been drawing me closer to you, I can see this now!”

“You do?” Mick gasps, “It has?”

“Yes! I’ve never been to Mars before, never wanted to come to this place, so old and provincial! And finally, when I do, I am beset on all sides by adversity! I fall, and land in your arms, so strong and capable. What were you doing here, if not waiting for me?”

“I was working!” Mick declares. “Working to support my dad and pay the rent so I can keep doing what I love.” 

“And what is that?” Nova says, shaking him slightly. Wow, she’s so strong and so passionate. The high arches of her cheeks are flushed and her smile is so wide and full of joy, it’s impossible not to smile back, not to meet her feverish declaration with one of his own.

“I’m a writer! I write stories about the adventures my friends and I had as kids and they’re not very popular but I think they’re really good and I’m proud to have made them!”

“A writer,” she gasps, “Of course. My angel, with your soft hands and wide, guileless eyes like a calf in the moonlight, gazing at me like I’m a dream come to life! A writer! Just when I’ve been adrift, lost in a dreary sea of responsibility you stumble into my path. What else could it have been? Come away with me, run away with me. Escort me through this hostile planet and be always at my side.”

“And, just, leave my job?”

“Yes!”

“What about my dad?” The stars fade out of his vision slightly, his smile wilts on his face. He can’t leave his dad....

“What about him, my prince of sweetness and cherry pie, you tell me what’s wrong.”

“It’s nothing, really, it’s just. He’s sick. He forgets stuff a lot of the time and he can’t be left alone too long. I’m sorry, I wish I could, but-”

“We’ll get him a nurse! I swear it, You poor, poor thing, looking after your own father, taking the mantle of responsibility on your own broad shoulders to bear the weight of the world. My will o’the wisps, my soul in repose!” 

Mick feels his mouth fall open and watches her watch him, her eyes darting down to his mouth. “Do you mean that?”

“I do!” Nova says. 

“I’ve never met anyone like you in my entire life,” Mick says softly, in awe of her. 

“And you never will again,” she winks, “Nova Zolotovna is one of a kind.”

“Just like your dress,” he smiles. 

“Do you like it?”

“Well yeah, it looks great on you! Really accentuates your, uh….figure.” He gulps, firmly keeping his eyes above shoulder height. 

“Thank you, sugar! Now, what do I have to do to win your love? Your dear father will be taken care of, you’ll never need to think of money again, if it’s debts you have they’ll be wiped clean, I’ll support your talent, is it this place? This job? I can shut them down, take them out, I can-”

“Whoa, whoa, hey, it’s okay,” Mick squeezes her hand in his and she melts into him with a sigh. “You don’t need to do that! I can just quit!”

“You can?”

“Oh yeah, I’m pretty sure they won’t even notice I’m gone. Well, except for Handsome Mike, who comes by every lunch to ask me what the weather is like on Venus.”

She pouts, “Am I not more handsome then this Mike? Would you not tell me the weather on Venus?”

“It’s cloudy over Paloma,” Mick says immediately. 

“What does that mean?” Nova smiles, and the stars reappear in Mick’s eyes, dancing around his brain like a meteor shower.

“I don’t know!” He smiles back. 

She loops their arms together, “So you’ll come with me?”

“Yeah,” Mick says. Gosh he’d probably agree to just about anything to keep her smiling like this. “I mean, as long as you’d like me to. I wouldn’t want to boast but you won’t find a better guide to all of Hyperion’s greatest attractions. You know most people think this really snooty restaurant called Flight is the best in the city,”

“I have heard that!”

“Right! But where they should be going is the Fleet. It’s amazing! My friend Sasha’s dad’s took us there as a treat when we graduated from high school, and to this day I’ll tell you it’s the best Hanuumanian food I’ve ever had.” He neglects to say that outside of what Sasha’s dad’s cooked, it’s the only Hanuumanian food he’s ever had. 

“Lead the way my blossoming flower.”

“For as long as you’ll let me,” he blushes, and jolts slightly as her dress rustles. “Wait!” 

“What.” Nova’s statuesque shoulders slump, and her spine curves with disappointment. 

“Let me get your train for you, uh,” Mick stutters, his face heating, “dear? I don’t want you to trip again, you see? What if you twist your ankle? Or, or, fall!”

“Oh!” Nova clutches the fluffy scarf that drapes over her shoulder and lifts it to her mouth to muffle a squeal. “Aren’t you just the most thoughtful man! Why, you keep this up and I just might marry you this same day, my mister….uh...my, I’ve been so swept up I lost complete control over my manners. I just about ran right over you and didn’t so much as ask you your name! Can you ever forgive me?” 

“Sure! Yeah! Of course! It’s… It’s Bartholomew Mercury.” He presents his full name, half because that’s the name he publishes under and half because it sounds better than Mick. But, he is Mick. Feels more like a Mick then a Bart, at any rate. And it’s only his uncle who ever called him that. Called him Barty, in fact. Mick wrinkles his nose at the memory. “But uh, everyone’s always called me Mick.”

“Mick?”

“Yeah, Mick Mercury, at your service, my lady.” He bobs into a curtsy before remembering that ladies were supposed to curtsy, on account of their big dresses, or something like that. Oh well. He picks up her train while he’s at it, carefully gathering the heavy fabric and making sure it’s out of the way of her shoes. 

“It is my genuine pleasure to meet you Mick Mercury. Now, you said you’re a writer?”

“I am! Uh, actually, would you mind terribly if I based a character on your in my next book?”

“Me?! Little old me? Miss Nova Zolotovna?”

“Yeah! See, I was thinking,” he starts to explain the plot, and then has to back up and explain the characters and then just fishes out one of his readers to show her the first in the series instead. 

She listens, rapt, all the way to the hotel, and starts peppering in ideas when they get to the restaurant and by the time they’re finished there, he’s got his next three books planned and he’s halfway in love.

He can’t wait to tell Jay about this on their next call!


End file.
